If you believe God is good today, say Amen.
If you believe that God is here to say today, say Amen.
And if you are ready to surrender everything and allow
him to speak to you, say Amen. Amen means so be it.
So be it. We're we're going to jump into
God's word here in a minute, but I need your help real quick.
I need you to help me finish this statement.
It's something I think you know pretty well at Progressive.
We can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we
can't protect your home in Otto when you bundle and save with
us. That's what some of my favorite
commercials these days are. Those Progressive.
Do you guys like those commercials?
Why do we like them so much? Because they're true.
How many of you have started to see yourself becoming like your
parents? Teens.
Are you there yet? Yeah, some of you.
Yeah. So last week I went to lunch
with someone that that it doesn't live around here.
And when we finished lunch, they were getting ready to leave.
And I said, well, here's how you get to the Interstate.
And I started giving directions. And Megan turned to me and said,
they're just going to put in their phone.
Like, what are you doing? Leave them alone.
Well, that's just like, listen, my dad, if he has, if you ask
him where something is, he is going to draw you a map to that
place. He loves drawing maps and he
draws them so neatly and perfectly.
I mean, they are like, I think they're to scale and he draws
these perfect maps. And so I don't know what it is,
but I, I, I know I'm becoming and being transformed more and
more. Every once in awhile he'll be
here worshipping with us. And you know, I'm emotional and
we'll be singing and I'll start getting emotional and I'll reach
in my pocket and get a tissue and I will reach up to wipe my
eyes and I'll see him in front of me wiping his eyes at the
same exact time. And I just think, oh man, I
inherited a lot of things. There's studies that say that we
inherit, lots of studies that teach us that we inherit.
We learn behaviors. We tend to become like our
parents, the people who model for us.
Maybe you've noticed those things.
Maybe those things are good things.
Maybe they're not your favorite thing.
Maybe there are some things that you're like, I wish I wouldn't
have inherited that. You know, my my 5 head that I've
got here. It's comes from dad.
My hair just keeps moving back and my kids just keep making fun
of me more. But but man, I'm so thankful for
the good things that I inherited from my parents.
And here's the deal, whether it's good or bad, we're in first
John chapter 4 and we see that whether you inherit things from
your parents or not, we should look to God.
We have a model as to what it looks like to love each other.
And so we are in the middle of this love triangle series.
And the idea is that the more we draw closer to God, the better
we can love each other because we have this model.
Just as your parents, we're a model for things good and bad.
We have a God that shows us how to love each other.
So we're going to be in first John chapter 4, seven through
21. Stand with me in honor God's
word and listen. We said, Amen.
We said, so be it. We said God is good.
We said, God is here and we said we are surrendered and ready to
hear from him. So my prayer is that God's Word
will speak to us, speak to you, and that you will be open and
obedient to respond to his word. It says, Dear friends, let us
love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us.
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might
live through him. This is love, not that we loved
God, but that he loved us, and he sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved
us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives
in US, and His love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in Him and He and us.
He has given us His Spirit, and we have seen and testified that
the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, then
God lives in them and they in God.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in
God and God in them. This is how love is made
complete among us, so that we will have confidence on the day
of judgment. In this world, we are like
Jesus. There is No Fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with
punishment. The one who fears is not made
perfect in love. We love because He first loved
us. Whoever claims to love God yet
hates a brother or sister is a liar.
Whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they
have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.
And he has given us this command.
Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
You can have a seat. Three things we see in God's
Word today. Look to Jesus, say, look to
Jesus. Grow in Jesus.
Say it, grow in Jesus and love like Jesus.
Look to Jesus. Grow in Jesus, love like Jesus.
This is one of my favorite passages when I'm doing a
wedding. I love this passage because the
truth is, as we stand up before a bunch of people or a few
people, and while two people are committing themselves to
marriage, the truth is we can only love each other to our best
if we're loving each other in the love of God.
I love this passage. God is love.
The more we know Him, the more we walk with him, the better
we're going to love each other. That's true of marriages, That's
true of families, that's true of coworkers, that's true of the
church. God is love.
Now here's the thing. We have a lot of confusion about
love in our world. There are a lot of different
pictures of love. You, you see different things in
movies, you hear in music, on social media, all these
different pictures of what love is.
We see all these and there's just a ton of confusion over
what love is. Here's the deal.
God does not want this to be a mystery to us.
God has shown us what love is. He is love and so He invites us
to know Him. Verse 7 Dear friends, let us
love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.
How much time do we spend looking to movies, music, all of
those different places? And, and they tell us these
different things about what love is.
In fact, lately there's been this thing, I don't know what
this means. I don't know how the algorithm
is, what's going on, but I keep getting these ads that talk
about like, if your wife has fallen out of love with you,
here's how to get that love back.
And I'm just like, what's going on, Megan?
Like, what are you searching and what are you typing in?
But there's all these different, I mean, like Hollywood tells us,
you know, celebrities tell us, athletes tell us social media,
there's all these different things that try to teach us what
love is. But the world is is amazingly
confused at what love is. If you want to know what love
is, know God because God is love.
If you want to be a better husband, wife, if you want to be
a better father, mother, if you want to be a better friend,
boss, Co worker, look to God. Say look to God.
God is love. The best way to love better is
to know God. The more you know God, the
better you will be able to love each other.
How much time do we spend on those other avenues, watching
movies, all these other things? How much time do we spend
looking at those things that are teaching us a false view of
love? If you want to know what it is,
if you want to grow in love, look to Jesus.
That goes to verse 10, says this is love, not that we love God,
but that he loved us and he sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice
for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved
us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives
in US and his love is made complete in US.
So it says God is love. If you want to know what love
is, don't look to Hollywood, look to God.
And then it says this is love, not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and he sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our
sins. So it goes on and spells it out.
God is love and this is what it looked like.
This is how it this is how it played out.
God sent his Son. He loves you so much that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have everlasting life.
Praise the Lord, you should be excited about that.
That's why we can gather today. The gospel is that God loves you
so much that he sent his Son to pay the price for your sins and
give you life. But it gets even better.
I love verse 12. It says no one has ever seen
God. But if we love one another, God
lives in US and His love is made complete in US.
The closest thing you will see to God this side of eternity is
love that comes from God played out between each other.
It says nobody has ever seen God.
Now we had Jesus who walked the earth.
So, so Jesus was seen and he says we've seen and testified to
Jesus. We can see the evidence of God
moving, but it says nobody has seen God.
However, if we love each other, if we know Him and we walk in
His love, then we get a picture of it as He transforms us.
When we walk in the love of Christ, we can learn to love
each other in a way that shows God's love.
You want to experience God? You want to experience a move of
God. Know Him, spend time with Him,
and allow Him to transform the way that you love others.
And you will see God at work. You will see His character in
His love at work. Over the years, many people in
the church have talked about revival.
We want revival. We need revival.
How many of you have said that before?
We need revival. Some of you are lying.
We can't have revival if you're not going to be honest, guys, I
hear this all the time. We we need revival.
We want revival. I think in the church we've, we
get confused and we think revival is this great worship
experience and it's this great. Like it's, we sing and we get
emotional and it's and, and that's a piece of it.
But I want you to understand that if you want to see God
move, if you want to see revival, it starts by knowing
him and being fully surrendered. And revival is not best
expressed by tears and hands up. Revival is best expressed by
changed lives, surrendered hearts, love growing and
changing us. The best revivals I've ever
seen, Yeah, there was worship, there were hands raised, there
was crying. But there were people that were
saying I forgive you for that thing that happened 20 years
ago. I don't want to be wrong with
you. I can't be right with God if I'm
wrong with you. What is true revival?
Well, it's theological renewal, renewal.
It's a renewed deep love and obedience of the word of God.
It's obedience, it's deep repentance.
It's a brokenness over sin in a decisive break with the past and
sinful behaviours. It's repentance.
If you want revival, there has to be repentance.
It's Christ centeredness, it's a focus on him, an overwhelming
desire to exalt Jesus and seek his Kingdom first.
It's a lasting transformation. It's long term change in
lifestyle and holiness and in love for others.
And it's a sovereign work. It can only come from God.
That's revival. Scripture says here God is love.
If you want to know love, look to God.
And if you look to God and you know him and you allow him to
transform you, you want to see God move.
That's how it's going to happen. Yeah, through worship, but
through obedience, through repentance, through focusing on
him, and through transformation, through loving each other.
If if you want to see God move, then come to church ready.
Come to church ready to lay it all down.
Don't come to church ready to see some friends.
Don't come to church ready to get through another Sunday.
Don't come to church ready to judge me or the music.
Come to church ready to lay your heart open before God, to allow
Him to convict and transform anything in your heart that
doesn't bring Him glory. Surrender fully and I promise
you, revival comes. We cannot have revival without
complete surrender. We cannot have revival if we're
not right with each other and if we're not willing to be right
with each other, there can be no revival.
It takes surrender. And this says if you will know
Him, if you will surrender, if you will walk in His love, then
you will see Him move. No one's ever seen God.
But if, if we walk in His love, then His love is made complete
in US. Guys, I got to be honest with
you, I, I come into church way too often with too much on my
mind. And sometimes I just have to
say, God, take that away. I mean, even while we're
singing, guys, I'm, I'm the same as you.
Sometimes we're singing and I'm, I'm judging and I'm thinking and
I have to say, God, it's, this isn't about me.
This is about you, and I have to surrender.
You want revival? Come ready to worship.
You want to see God move? Come with an open heart,
obedient and surrendered, and learn to love each other better.
Burt Bacharach was right. You didn't know you were going
to hear about Burt Bacharach today, did you?
But he was right. What the world needs now is
love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's
just too little of. I'd sing it to you, but you
wouldn't enjoy it. But the world doesn't need
Hollywood love, and the world doesn't need social media love,
and the world doesn't need celebrity love.
The world needs God's love. So start look to Jesus.
Say look to Jesus now #2 say grow in Jesus.
We look to Jesus, but we have to grow in Jesus as we look to him
and we know him more. We have to be transformed into
his image and we grow to become like Him and we learn to love
better. Verse 16 says God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.
And this is how love is made complete among us so that we
will have confidence on the day of judgment in this world.
We are like Jesus. Say praise the Lord, praise the
Lord guys, we believe in holiness.
We believe that we are being transformed into the image of
God. Not that we're some people that
are just rotten and terrible. Yes we were, Yes we can be.
But know that we are being transformed into the image of
God. That we will have confidence on
the day of judgement that in this world we are like Jesus.
There is No Fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment.
The one who made who? Who is the one who fears is not
made perfect. Three things we see right here.
Number one, we can live confident #2 we can be like
Jesus and #3 there's no reason to fear if we're living in the
love of God and the love of Christ.
Listen, we talk about the altars a lot.
Every week. I try to tell you that the
altars are open. And sometimes I think we view
the altars as a place of shame or defeat.
Guys, that couldn't be further from the truth.
The altar isn't a place of shame and defeat, it's a place of
victory. This says we can live confident
for the day of judgement. A lot of people aren't living
confident for the day of judgement.
They say I can't go to church because I know what I've done
and God knows what I've done. Guys, I want you to know that
God loves you so much. If you know His love, then you
would understand that He has already paid the price for your
sins. He's already paid the price for
your worst days, for your worst things that you've done.
He's paid the price and He's drawing you to Him.
Guys, the altar is a place of repentance and beauty, and it's
a place of victory. Sometimes we don't want to walk
up to the altar because we're worried about what other people
will think. Let me tell you what I think
when we don't go to the altar. I think we're not living
surrendered and we're not living in His victory and we're not
living in His love. We can live confident, confident
on the day of judgement in this world.
We are like Jesus and there is No Fear in love.
First John, first John 5. The next chapter starts by
saying this. Everyone who believes that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God and everyone who loves the Father
loves the child as well, His child as well.
This is how we know that we love the children of God, by loving
God and carrying out His commands.
In fact, this is love for God to keep His commands.
Now listen to this part. His commands are not burdensome,
for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
This is the victory that's overcome the world, even our
faith. Who is it that overcomes the
world? Only the one who believes that
Jesus is the Son of God praise the Lord.
We can live in confidence because we know that God loves
us, because we know that he loves us so much that he already
paid the price for our sins, that he's drawing us to him.
Praise the Lord that we can live like Jesus and praise the Lord
that we don't have to live in fear and we don't have to live
in burdensome religion. We can live in joy.
Yesterday I was at the campground.
We had our annual ministers licensing retreat.
So that's where if you're a, if you're a minister, you feel
called to ministry, then you go on this path and, and through
this path, you would get local license at the church level and
then you would get a district license on the district level.
And then you come to the point of ordination.
And so one of the big parts of this weekend is that we gather
together. There's about 15 of us that
gather in a room and anyone that's coming up to be ordained
has to come in front of us and interview with us.
And that can be. That can be a fearful thing.
I can tell you it used to be that everyone wore black suits
and sat in that room. That was way before my time.
I would have never made it, but but everyone wore black suits
and there used to be a lot of fear.
Oh, what are they going to ask me?
They're judging me. Am I going to be good enough?
And there was this fear and and I, I got to tell you, I love, I
love that that time. Yeah, it's hard to get in front
of people. But I got to tell you, the 15
people that are sitting there are not pastors that are looking
to judge and condemn and keep people from coming to walk in
ministry. We are people that we want to
see other people grow in ministry.
And it's so beautiful, guys. I wish you could see it.
It's so beautiful to sit there with someone who got his called
to hear their ministry. And yeah, sometimes there need
to be some tough things said, but it's all done in this
beautiful love, guys. If you understood his love for
you, you would live in confidence knowing that you're a
child of God and you would have No Fear.
One of the really cool interviews yesterday was a guy
from from Nigeria and he was telling us all about all the bad
things that have happened in his homeland.
And and one of the people in the questions said, Hey, how in the
world? I mean, you are the most joyful
person in this room. How can you be joyful?
This guy had lost five family members to tragedy, to murder,
to the evil, the kid. They said, you've seen the worst
of humans in the world. How can you sit here and be
joyful? You want to know the love of
Christ? There's No Fear, there's
confidence and there's joy. Why?
Because we have overcome the world.
There's victory in the love of Christ.
You have some troubles, and Brad talked about this, Brad, Brad
preached about this for a while. Just a little bit ago, you got
troubles taken to God. Today you can be the most joyful
person in the room, even if you're dying.
Today you can be the most joyful person in the room even if
you're in the middle of some really hideous relational stuff.
The only way, though, is to walk in the love of Christ.
See, knowing God's love number one gives us confidence in our
status with God. We don't have to come to God
with our tail between our legs. We can come confident that His
grace is sufficient. We can come confident, not
thinking. I don't come to the altar
thinking, Oh no, is God going to forgive me?
No, He's already forgiven me. He loves me.
He wants me to come to Him. I don't come to the altar
wondering if God's grace is enough to cover my sin.
I come knowing that the price has been paid and that His grace
is sufficient. I don't come to the altar
wondering if I'm good enough, if He can transform me.
I come knowing that he who began a good work will bring it on to
completion. I come in confidence #2 it frees
us from fear and anxiety. I love the song.
Turn your eyes on Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and
the things of earth will grow strangely to him in the light of
his glory and grace. We can live confident, and we
don't have to live in fear. But the third thing is that we
can be like Jesus. Don't miss that part.
It says this is how we have confidence in this world.
We are like Jesus guys. We we believe in holiness in our
church. We believe that God is
transforming us into his image. Not that you never have a bad
day or you never slip up or you never make a mistake, but we
believe that God is transforming us to have a love that is so
strong for him, so on fire for Him that we have no desire to
sin and fall short. We want to please him with
everything in our life says in this world, you are like Jesus.
We can actually be like Jesus. You're not going to probably
turn water to wine. You're probably not going to go
hit someone in the head and heal him.
But I'm telling you that God's power is at work in you as
spirit lives in you. And God can do anything through
you. And what he wants to do is he
wants to transform your heart and to teach you to love like
Jesus so that we're not just a bunch of flawed people walking
around just doing our best. We are the transformed people of
God who are becoming more and more like him.
So say, look to him. Look to Jesus now.
Say grow in Jesus just as an athlete, just as a preacher,
just as anyone else has to take inventory and has to practice
and has to know a lot of times my kids will play games and
after the game we'll talk about their game.
And listen, I, I love my kids. They're awesome.
They're incredible great, you know, great athletes and I love
that. But listen, I don't want to just
be, hey, you did a great job. I want them to get better.
I want them to be better what they do.
So sometimes that's hard. Sometimes I say, hey, you know,
you had a great game. I love you, you're the best.
But you know this little moment right here, if you do this and
they, they don't like that too much.
That's what I've learned. The kids don't like that too
much. But how do you get better?
How do you grow if you're not taking inventory?
And so we're not just called to look to Jesus to know Him.
We're called to be transformed and to grow in Him.
Guys, if you are 90 years old and you're here today,
congratulations, but you have not made it and you have not
gotten to the point that you are stopping your spiritual growth.
You are called to grow in love. There is no retirement from
growth in Christ. We are called to become like
Jesus and that never ends until the one day we stand in His
presence and experience His glory.
Verse 19 says we love because He first loved us.
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a
liar. For whoever does not love their
brother and sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom
they have not seen. And He has given us this
command. Anyone who loves God must also
love their brother and sister. Say look to Jesus, Say grow in
Jesus. Now say love.
Like Jesus, we can love. We love because he first loved
us. Guys, I got to tell you, you,
you, you couldn't love God if it weren't for his love for you
because God is love. Without his love, we don't even
know what love is. We couldn't possibly do it.
We love because he first loved us.
We don't love him so that please get this right.
Please understand this. We don't love God so that God
will love us. We love God because He first
loved us. We can love God because He first
loved us. We love Him in response to what
He has done for us, to His love for us.
The more we know Him, the more we will know His love for us.
The more we know His love for us, the more we will love Him.
The more you know how much God loves you, the more you can
learn to love Him back and love each other.
I want you to know the depth of God's love for you today.
So here's the deal. You know that you're not
perfect, right? Nod your head if you know you're
not perfect, all right? Some of you, some of you didn't
nod at me. It's a moment of imperfection
and we'll forgive it. You know you're not perfect.
In fact, you know the worst things you've ever thought, the
worst things you've ever said, and the worst things you've ever
done. Don't you nod your head if you
know the worst things you've ever thought, the worst things
you've ever said, and the worst things you've ever done.
Can I tell you the truth? God knows your flaws.
God knows your failures even more than you do.
Let me tell you why. See, we have blind spots.
That's a that's a fact. People have blind spots.
We know some of our failures, but but every single one of us
has some blind spots in our life that we don't even we don't even
know the depth. Can I tell you that God knows
the depth of your failure and your sin?
God knows the depth of your inadequacy.
And can I tell you the good news of the Gospel?
That He loves you so much that He sent his one and only Son to
die on a cross to pay for your sins?
This is love. Not that we loved him, but that
He loved us. And He sent his Son so that we
could live through him. He sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice. Guys, God knows your worst.
You, you're not surprising him. He knows your worst and He still
chooses to love you. Man, when you understand that
there's No Fear, when you understand that, that frees you.
You don't have to worry about if you're good enough.
You don't have to listen. God's already made it abundantly
clear. He created you.
He created all these good things around you.
He chose you. He knows you deeply.
He chose to send his Son to die on a cross so that you could be
forgiven of your sins. He, he chose his Son to raise
from the dead so that you could have life everlasting.
He fills you with his spirit. He continues.
He gave us his word. He continues to chase after and
to speak to us. God continues to come after us.
There's no mystery. God loves you more than you will
ever know. We can love because He first
loved us. Now He invites us to live in His
love and to share His love with others.
That's a beautiful thing, says we love because he first loved
us. And then it goes on and says you
need to learn to love each other.
That's the evidence of somebody who is walking in his love is
that they love the people around them.
So say look to look to Jesus, say grow to grow in Jesus.
Say love like Jesus. That's what we're called to.
We're going to we're going to wrap up with communion
responding in in God's to God's word and communion worship team.
You can come on up. You know, we started by talking
about becoming like our parents. I had really great parents, but
I'm also a parent. And as I think about that, as I
think about being a father, I sure hope that the model, that
the example that I set is an example of God's love as a
husband. I sure hope that I show the love
of Christ to my wife. As a pastor, I don't want to
stand up here and be anything other than someone that points
to Jesus. Guys, we're called to know him.
We're called to grow in Him and we're called to love like Jesus.
We're going to take communion. The scripture says this is love.
Not that we loved him, but He loved us, and He sent His Son so
that we could have life. An atoning sacrifice.
Communion means is a sacrament. A sacrament means grace flows.
So here's the deal. We're going to take communion
here in a minute. And what you're going to do is
you're going to come get the elements and you're going to
hold them. And then halfway through the
song, we're going to take them together.
Here's what I want you to to do. I want you to respond to God's
Word today as you hold the elements #1 maybe you need to
know His love a little bit more. Maybe you've been doubting.
Maybe you've been struggling. Today I pray that He will make
it abundantly clear just how much He loves you #2IN
communion. We come and we surrender.
We don't just know His love, but we surrender our hearts.
We open our hearts and we say, God, is there anything that
doesn't bring you glory and honor?
And if there is, change it. So today we want to know His
love, but #2 we want to surrender.
We want to be transformed. We want to grow in Jesus and #3
we want to be led to love others.
We want to be empowered to love others, to love like Jesus.
So in in a minute after I pray, you can come and grab the
elements and just hold them. And I would ask you to pray,
respond to God's word, surrender completely.
You want revival, you want to see God lay it all on the line
and trust him. Father, I prayed speak to us.
I pray that as we take the elements together here in a few
minutes, Lord, I pray that you would do your work.
Pray that you would show us your love, I pray that you would help
us to surrender, and I pray you would transform us into your
image, and I pray that you would teach us to love each other
better. We give you everything now.
We worship you through responding in communion in Jesus
name, Amen. Come and get the elements, Pray,
hold them and we'll take them together.